RCF winter call to start earlier than before – changes also in application criteria and conditions for use of funding

The Research Council of Finland is adopting a new schedule for the winter call. The 2026 winter call will open in October 2025 and close in November; the call texts will be published in late September. There will also be updates to the application criteria and the terms and conditions for the use of funding.

The Research Council of Finland (RCF) is changing the schedule of the winter call. The 2026 winter call will open on 15 October 2025 and close on 12 November 2025. The decision schedule will remain unchanged: The funding decisions will be taken by the scientific councils in June 2026, and the funding periods will start on 1 September 2026.

The change in the timing of the winter call has been influenced by feedback received from applicants and applicant organisations. A shorter timeframe will also ensure a high-quality review of applications and take into account the new processing phases related to research security with a decreasing number of RCF personnel.

Changes to terms of application and use of funding

As before, the RCF will process only one application from the same applicant in the winter call. However, in the case of overlapping funding and funding periods, there will be further restrictions, partly also in order to reduce the number of applications.

With regard to Academy Project Funding, Academy Research Fellows, heads of Centres of Excellence or subproject principal investigators (PIs) in Centres of Excellence will not be granted Academy Project Funding with overlapping funding periods. In addition, a subproject of an Academy Project consortium will be considered an Academy Project and its PI will not be granted new Academy Project Funding with overlapping funding periods. The PIs of projects or subprojects funded under thematic calls are not subject to these restrictions.

There will also be changes to the funding conditions for the salary costs of Academy Project PIs. As before, the PI’s salary costs may only under certain limitations and on justifiable grounds be incorporated into the total project costs. The salary costs of the PI are limited to 1.5 months per funding year, or to a total of six months during the four-year funding period. However, the RCF will introduce more flexibility in the use of funding. With the salary costs reform, the RCF wants to direct project funding to be used more for research carried out in projects and for the salaries of early-career researchers working in them.

As for Academy Research Fellowships, the RCF will set a maximum limit for the funding. The aim is to stop the amounts applied for from increasing to a level that would threaten to reduce the overall success rates to unsustainable levels. In addition, with regard to the eligibility for Academy Research Fellowship funding, care will be taken to ensure that the change in the winter call schedule will not cause potential applicants to miss out.

The 2026 winter call will not include funding for clinical researchers. The funding instrument for clinical research will be revised, and a new call for applications is expected to open in spring 2026. More information on this will be available in autumn 2025.

The revised and confirmed winter call details will be communicated in September in connection with the publication of the call texts on the RCF’s website and other communication channels.

The Research Council of Finland promotes excellent, responsible and high-impact research across all scientific disciplines to ensure that society can make the best possible use of the results of research. We work to ensure the scientific renewal, diversification and internationalisation of Finnish research.